Why Super Bowl ads will likely bypass influencers

From the moment Charli D’Amelio’s shock of black hair first flashed across the screen in hummus brand Sabra’s 2020 Super Bowl ad, marketing industry observers couldn’t help but wonder: When will influencers in Big Game TV spots become the norm rather than the exception? 

Some experts thought that 2022—the year influencer marketing ballooned into a $16 billion industry—would bring more influencers to in-game ads. But 2022’s ads were rather traditional, with many starring celebrities who got their starts outside the social media realm. Only one commercial showed influencers: Rakuten’s ad included the fashion influencers behind creator-led brand Favorite Daughter.

According to many influencer marketers, 2023 isn’t going to be the year of the influencer Super Bowl ad, either. Experts say that’s because of two main factors: rising influencer rates and the economic downturn. Given this, it’s more likely that fans will see influencers in digital activations running alongside the Big Game, if not on TV.

On marcro-economic forces

For something that takes up as much marketing budget as a Super Bowl ad, “brands are cautious, and they want to go with something tried and true that they feel comfortable with,” said Danielle Wiley, CEO and founder of influencer marketing agency Sway Group. 

Wiley also said she thinks viewers will see more “typical celebrities” starring in the ads. Brands will “want to do what they perceive as playing it safe,” she said, and influencers don’t fall into that category. Traditional celebrities have long been part of the Super Bowl playbook—in the past 25 years, about a third of Big Game ads have included them, according to Sports Business Journal.

“I think the Super Bowl is no different than marketing as a whole—the industry is extremely scared of risk and taking chances,” said Kaylen McNamara, senior VP of new business operations at VaynerX, who was Vayner’s account lead for the Sabra Super Bowl ad starring D’Amelio. 

“In any circumstance where we’re anticipating financial downturn, marketers tend to stick to what is tried and true because they want the most ROI with whatever dollars that they have left to spend,” said Annelise Campbell, CEO and founder of influencer talent agency CFG—which has done influencer activations for brands including Lifewtr around the Super Bowl.

She added that it would make “a lot of sense to her” if brands go back to what they know has worked in the past “versus taking a big bet and a risk on something new that might not have that payout.” That’s especially the case, she said, for a moment as pricey as the Super Bowl.

Rising rates

In previous years, there was a financial argument for putting influencer talent in a Super Bowl ad rather than a celebrity: an influencer would have likely been cheaper. But today, as creators raise rates, that argument carries less weight. 

Sway Group is now seeing that prices for bigger influencers are “the same” as traditional celebrities, Wiley said. Recently, when getting quotes for a client from TikTok influencers, Wiley said the TikTokers were “charging exactly the same” for their services as Drew Barrymore. 

“If you’re going to go with someone huge like that, it’s not less of an investment, necessarily, than a celebrity,” Wiley said. Especially when it comes to “those first-mover influencers—those early TikTokers,” Wiley said she’d definitely imagine they cost “more than most celebrities right now.” 

Brands looking at having an influencer star in a Super Bowl ad rather than a celebrity as a way to cut costs might be disappointed, according to Campbell. 

Instacart Chief Marketing Officer Laura Jones is bullish on using influencers for digital activations on the Super Bowl’s sidelines. For 2022’s Super Bowl, Instacart tapped 20 top TikTok creators (such as Josh Peck and Noah Beck) to create, in Jones’s words, “content that celebrated the greatest Super Bowl snacks.” Instacart offered deals on the app for Super Bowl viewers to recreate some of those snacks at home.

Jones anticipates that more brands will follow Instacart’s lead for 2023’s game. Instacart received over 150 million TikTok views on the content, which she said “exceeded the impressions” the brand would have garnered from a 30-second Super Bowl TV ad. According to her math, she said a Super Bowl spot only would have gotten Instacart around 100 million views.

Vicki McRae, senior VP of brand, creative & communications at Rakuten—which bought an ad for the 2023 game—also thinks we’ll see many digital influencer activations on the sidelines of Super Bowl LVII. “Everybody’s looking to maximize their investment as much as possible,” she said. “So if we’re goint to invest in the Super Bowl, it’s like, what can you do surrounding it to make sure that you make the biggest impact?”